The counsellor explained my Meyers-Briggs (MBTI) and Strong Interest (SII) Inventory scores. “INTJ, well suited for leadership,” she said. I would do well in marketing or advertising, something senior, she continued. What came next was like listening to a fortune-teller, especially as I consider where I am now, 20 years later. I would definitely get a PhD, someday. I am not sure whether the telling directed my path or my personality itself. But here I am at “someday” in my journey to PhD.

Tools, tools, tools, they all seem the same. Each provide a little more insight into where we are best/worst suited to work, what kinds of roles we would/wouldn’t be good at, what we should/should not do and so on. The tools have not changed much in the last two decades. Since then, social technologies have changed the roles and requirements of leadership to one more dependent on relationships. I set out on this stage of my journey to understand the tools currently used to measure leadership potential and their ability to accommodate this evolution. For the purposes of this post, I will focus on the Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI).

The journey has begun with an intense week of orientation into the Fielding Graduate University doctoral program for Human and Organizational Systems. In the next 3-5 years I will be digging deeper into my work with my Social Optimization Theory applied to Leadership in the New Social Paradigm from many angles. I am excited and inspired by the potential to learn, and grow personally while contributing to my field. Above are my sketch notes from the final session with advice for moving forward. I will share research results on this site and more as I come across interesting things of value for practitioners. Fielding provides a great balance between the scholar practitioner model which allows me to delve deeper while in practice.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you or your organization be interested in participating in or benefitting from the research.

About Heidi

Heidi Forbes Öste, Global Social Strategist and Visual Practitioner, has a passion for humanizing technology and strategic use of social tools for individuals & organizations both online & face-to-face. Integrating her passion for teaching & learning with visual communications and her experience with intercultural communications, she applies her unique perspective to her teaching methodology of The Art of Social Strategy. She provides keynotes, workshops, strategic visual harvesting and consulting to clients worldwide.